Roulette is a popular gambling game offered in many casinos around the world. American Roulette is a table game played with a dealer, or croupier, and a wheel with 38 equal-sized slots. Each of the 38 slots has a number and a color associated with it and printed in the slot. Two slots are given the numbers “0” and “00” and are colored green; these slots are at opposite ends of the wheel. In between the green numbers are 36 other slots (numbered one through 36), which alternate between 18 red slots and 18 black slots. In a common variation, the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, and 35 are colored black; the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34, and 36 are colored red.
Upon play, the dealer spins the wheel in one direction and rolls a small metal ball in the other direction. When the wheel slows down, the ball settles into one of the numbered and colored slots. This number/color combination is the winner.
There are a variety of bets that may be made in a traditional roulette game. There is a table that players may place wagering chips on, and the values on this table correspond with the values imprinted in the 38 slots of the roulette wheel. This table customarily contains three columns of 12 numbers each, numbered from one through 36. Thus, the numbers 1, 2, and 3 are in the first row, numbers 4, 5, and 6 are in the second row, and so on. Each number is colored the same color that it is on the roulette wheel. Above these numbers are usually places for the “0” and “00” green numbers.
There are a variety of “inside bets” that may be played on the number grid (which contains numbers “0,” “00,” and 1-36). A player may bet on any one individual number coming up on the spin of the wheel by placing a wagering chip on that particular number on the gaming table; this often pays 35:1. By placing the chips in between two numbers, on a row of three numbers, on a diagonal corner in between four numbers, or between two rows, players can also bet on two, three, four, or six adjacent numbers at once. A bet on two numbers (known as a “split bet”) usually pays 17:1. A bet on one row of three numbers (known as a “street bet” or “three number bet”) usually pays 11:1. A bet on a cluster of four numbers (known as a “corner bet” or “square bet”) usually pays 8:1. A bet on two rows of six numbers total (known as a “six-line bet”) customarily pays 6:1.
To the side and bottom of the grid of numbers are usually other “outside bets” (bets on the grid of numbers itself are known as “inside bets”). These outside bets often include spaces where players may place chips in order to bet on red or black numbers, even or odd numbers, one column of numbers (e.g., 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, and 34), a group of numbers (1-12, 13-24, 25-36, 1-18, or 19-36), and possibly other variations. Each of these outside bets offers a payout related to the odds against it hitting (for example, the red or black bets usually pay 1:1, as do the even or odd bets; the column bets pay 2:1, and the groups of numbers pay either 2:1 on groups of 12 numbers or 1:1 on groups of 18 numbers).
The standard game of roulette, while popular, could be improved in a number of ways. First of all, the arrangement and colors of the numbers is simple and uninteresting. Judging by the immense popularity of card games (those using a standard 54-card deck of four different suits plus two jokers), players like the additional variation of thirteen different values of cards in four different suits (plus two “jokers”). Roulette could be improved, made more interesting, and given additional and varied types of new bets by increasing the number of slots on the roulette wheel (and hence, on the matching betting table), by increasing the amount of numbers, colors/suits, or both. As conceived by the inventors of the present invention, roulette may also be played without a roulette wheel at all; instead, cards could be manually dealt or turned over, or selected by automated means on a computer screen. As discovered by the inventors, a roulette game using 54 values (52 cards plus two “joker” values) of five different suits (including jokers) can lead to many more and more interesting bets than can a conventional roulette game using only 38 values (36 plus the “0” and “00” values) of three different colors. For example, as the inventors will show in the ensuing description, while traditional roulette allows players to bet on “red” or “black,” their advanced variation of roulette utilizing 52 card-based values would allow the player to bet on “spades,” “diamonds,” “clubs,” or “hearts;” and the player would still be able to bet on “red” or “black” cards, if he so desired.
Additionally, standard roulette games use a single spin of the wheel and therefore a single selected value to determine the outcome of all bets made in a given betting round. Roulette could be made far more interesting and build more suspense for players with the addition of multiple selected values per betting round instead of a single one. The combinations of spins that could produce a winning hand would be vastly increased, and the game would be made more interesting to players.
Another flaw of roulette is that it does not offer the possibility of “side bets,” and the commensurately high pots that may be won in a high-odds, high-payout side bet. The addition of a “side bet” and additional ways to win (regardless of the number that is selected by the spinning of the roulette wheel) offers the possibility and excitement of two games in one—even if a player loses the main bet, he may still be able to win the side bet (or bets). Additionally, the most that a player can win by picking an individual number in conventional roulette is 35:1. However, as conceived by the inventors of the present invention, the game could be improved and made more exciting to players and more profitable to casinos by introducing side bets that may pay 50:1, 1,000:1, 10,000:1, or even a progressive jackpot. The addition of such variations would likely make roulette more fun and exciting for players, as it increases the unpredictability of roulette, allows for the player to bet on two different types of games at once, and increases the payouts that a player may receive.
Further, as mentioned above, card games in general, and poker in particular, are very popular in America and around the world. Poker especially has benefited from a recent popularity explosion due to high-stakes tournaments being played that receive enormous national television coverage. There are many different poker tournaments, celebrity poker games, poker tutorials, and other poker-related shows on television; there are also countless poker-related sites on the Internet, where players may learn the rules of poker, be shown various strategies for playing poker, and even wager on poker games. Even laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and cell phones offer poker games for players on the go. The game is so popular, several airlines now offer poker games on television screens embedded in each seat wherein players on a flight may compete against other players on that flight. If traditional roulette could tap into the popularity of poker, poker cards, and the rankings and odds of poker hands, it could be greatly improved. An improvement of roulette that offered the number-based betting of a roulette-like table layout and/or roulette-like wheel, concurrently with the use of playing cards and the five-card poker-hand-based betting of poker and poker games would be ideal.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a modified roulette game which addresses the drawbacks of traditional roulette described above. Variations such as those conceived by the inventors as introduced above and will be described in the following discussion are therefore likely to increase the popularity of roulette even further. Roulette games utilizing such variations and advantages are likely to be more popular than standard roulette games, attract more and higher wagers from bettors, be more enjoyed by players, and be more profitable for the casinos that offer them. Other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the ensuing description of the present invention.